"Let's market Paintball to Elderly Women"

At least that is what I assume was the conversation in the staffroom of an Auckland Paintball business.

Today I saw an extravagant pop-up display at my local mall.  Like most suburban malls, my local is a plethora of elderly women, mums & small children.

So what were these Paintball guys doing there?  I couldn't help myself - I casually strolled up to them and asked why they were spending their marketing budget there.

Turns out they go around all the malls with the same set-up, and hit this mall about once a year.  They had indeed made sales - early Christmas presents for husbands, boyfriends & dads - so at least they came at a good angle.

But they couldn't have made many sales - my sister and I were watching with interest and I didn't see any conversions during the course of our lunch.  And surely that's the busiest time...

With all of your marketing efforts, always ALWAYS look at what you're doing and think to yourself:  "Is this the best way to reach our target audience?"  Don't just do something because it works for another business. 

My estimate is they spent about $1000 today to hire the space & pay two staff - that's money down the drain.  Christmas is coming up fast so here's what I would suggest as a marketing strategy with that time & budget:

1. Focus on offering Group deals to local sports clubs & businesses
2. Phone these places, ask who the best person would be to talk to about the upcoming Christmas Party
3. Get their details, add them to your call list (even if they have Christmas Party sussed, you can follow them up for team events next year)
4. Visit each place with business card & brouchure
5. Collect business cards at each place you visit, follow up, ask if you can add them to emailing list
6. Google Adwords (Christmas party venues, paintball, team activities etc.)
7. Facebook Ads 

Creating a plan to market directly to your prospects long-term beats selling 1-off passes to grandmothers - at a loss. 

What do you think?